Time in the air of Chen, a pilot for one of Taiwan's top air cargo firms, has dropped by two-thirds from two or three years ago. He now has around 12 days off a month, double what he got just a year ago.
Chen's prospects are hardly likely to improve after Taiwan announced exports plunged a record of 42 per cent last month from a year ago amid the worst global downturn since the Great Depression.
"I'm spending a lot more time with my kids," said Chen, 40, speaking on condition his full name not be used, before leaving to take his son and daughter to school.
Taiwan's economic slowdown has snowballed with alarming speed. Exports, which were still growing by double-digits as recently as August, have tumbled in the past few months.
Meanwhile, the jobless rate has jumped to a five-year high, with many workers becoming semi-employed as manufacturers force staff to take unpaid leave for up to three days a week.
The numbers could be the canary in the coal mine for other export-dependent Asian economies like Japan, South Korea and China, which are already showing similar signs of weakness.
"It's a warning for other countries," said Tine Olsen, an economist at Moody's.
The mood has grown sombre in Taiwan, maker of more than two-thirds of the world's laptop PCs and made-to-order microchips for the likes of global titans such as PC leaders Hewlett-Packard and Dell and chip giants like Texas Instruments and Qualcomm.
Electronics exports fell by an annual 43.4 per cent last month, also a record drop.
Compal Electronics, Taiwan's second biggest contract laptop computer maker, saw its laptop shipments drop from the third quarter to the fourth, an unprecedented dip for the company, said spokesman Chang Chih-ming.
On the logistics side of the aisle, the shipping complex at Keelung, Taiwan's No. 2 port, is quieter than usual.
A holding area for brightly coloured, massive containers with names like Triton and Capital was stacked only half as high as usual, said worker Tseng Tsung-peng.
"Manufacturing has dropped and there are no more export orders, which has a ripple effect," said Mr Tseng.
Yang Ming Marine, Taiwan's No. 2 marine shipper, was also downbeat. The firm expects global shipping to stay depressed through 2011 and plans to remove 10 ships from its fleet of 93 vessels due to falling demand, said Winsor Huang, vice president of corporate planning.
As companies struggle to cut costs, export-related workers like pilot Chen are becoming the downturn's silent victims, often left out of official numbers as their companies quietly force them to take time off without pay until times improve.
According to a report this week from Taiwan's Council of Labour Affairs, almost a fifth of Taiwan's firms with 200 workers or more have put employees on some form of forced unpaid leave.